He was educated at Eton and went on to serve with the Coldstream Guards, rising to the rank of captain and fighting in the Battle of Balaclava, the Battle of Inkerman (where he was severely wounded) and the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.

He served as chairman of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in 1868.

He died in 1910, aged 74, at his home of Montreal Park, near Sevenoaks, Kent as a result of an operation he received three months prior for a throat infection.

He was cremated on 16 August 1910 and his ashes buried two days later in nearby Riverhead.

Despite having married twice, the earl died childless and his titles passed to his brother, Hugh.